Deputy Interior Secretary Mike Connor said some of the White House’s objectives include encouraging more recycling of wastewater and promoting investment in water treatment and desalination technologies.

“From a technology standpoint, the administration views this as similar to the great strides that it’s made in the renewable energy area, where we set goals of reducing the costs of solar energy,” Connor told The Desert Sun in an interview by phone last week.

“I think in the area of water, given the impacts of climate change, the issues associated with long-term droughts, questions about sustainability, we’re striving to make and promote those types of investments to help us build resiliency in the long term,” Connor said during a visit to Las Vegas, where he attended a conference on water law.

The White House announced its new “water innovation strategy” last month and plans a summit on March 22, which is World Water Day, focusing on potential solutions to the country’s water challenges. The White House said in a fact sheet about the initiative that with improvements in efficiency, better management practices and more widespread adoption of water reuse technology, “we have potential to considerably reduce water usage by 33%.”

Federal officials said that would bring the U.S. more in line with other industrialized nations and could also reduce the country’s carbon emissions by decreasing the amounts of electricity needed to treat and pump water.

Another of the administration’s aims is to encourage research and development to bring down the costs of recycling wastewater and desalinating seawater.

“The overall goal is to achieve ‘pipe parity,’ where you could take these technologies, make available good quality water supplies that can compete with other water supplies,” Connor said, “so that we’re expanding the available resources for water consumption while also promoting efficiency wherever we can.”

During a Dec. 15 meeting at the White House, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell announced the creation of new Natural Resources Investment Center, which will be responsible for encouraging private investment in infrastructure projects and facilitating local water-exchange deals in the West.

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell(Photo: Sait Serkan Gurbuz, AP)

“We recognize there are limits to the resources that the federal government can apply towards these water resource challenges,” Connor said, “so we’re trying to promote more public-private partnerships.”

One big reason federal officials are confident it’s possible to reduce the nation’s water footprint is that it’s been done before. Due to improvements in efficiency and conservation, total water use in the United States has decreased in recent years even as the population has grown. Researchers with the U.S. Geological Survey have estimated that the country's water use in 2010 was about 13% less than 2005 — the lowest level since before 1970.

Since the 1990s, Connor noted, Southern California has made progress in saving water by investing in more water recycling plants.

“That water reuse strategy has been a very significant factor that has helped California live within its entitlement on the Colorado River,” Connor said. Across the West, he said, there is great potential to reuse more water, desalinate seawater and build plants that turn brackish groundwater into usable tapwater.

Researchers have also said there are big opportunities for farms to use water more efficiently. They’ve pointed out that many of the nation’s irrigated farms have yet to adopt advanced technologies such as devices for sensing soil moisture, which can help dramatically reduce water use.

In many areas across the country, groundwater levels have been declining due to years of overpumping. In an analysis of U.S. Geological Survey data last month, The Desert Sun and USA TODAY found that over the past two decades water levels have declined in 64% of the wells included in the government database. The average decline among decreasing wells has been more than 10 feet, and in some areas the water table has dropped more than 100 feet since 1995.

Gov. Jerry Brown(Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, AP)

With many areas relying increasingly on groundwater, Connor said, declining aquifers clearly represent one of the country’s major water challenges.

“I think it’s very accurate to be concerned about the increased use of groundwater, how that is not sustainable for the long term,” Connor said. “Ultimately, it’s going to have to be managed more than it is. But that’s a particular prerogative of the state and local entities to monitor and regulate groundwater use.”

He praised California’s recent steps to respond to pervasive problems of falling groundwater levels. In 2014, Gov. Jerry Brown signed the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, which lays out a timeline for local agencies to take charge of managing groundwater and empowers the state to step in when necessary to keep aquifers from falling further.

The declines in aquifers point to a need for better measurement and monitoring of the water that is pumped from wells, Connor said. “Overall we’ve just got to continue to try and strive towards more sustainable use of both surface and groundwater.”

In a report laying out its water proposals, the White House noted that some of the biggest increases in water demand due to climate change are projected in the same regions that rely heavily on groundwater, such as the Great Plains and parts of the Southwest. It said that as global warming puts added strains on water supplies, communities will need to “reconfigure their water infrastructure systems” to adapt.